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In the midst of a losing season on the business pages, can high-tech companies swing a ninth-inning rally on the sports pages? Opening Day for major league baseball is upon us, once more putting the spotlight on tech firms who have signed agreements -- for as long as 30 years and in excess of US$10...

Somehow, eBay is trying to put a fairness spin on news that it is going to offer sellers the option of buying banner ads on the site. But it hard to imagine how this plan could do anything other than tilt the playing field in favor of professional, high-volume sellers and away from the hobbyi...

Corel (Nasdaq: CORL) improved 13 U.S. cents to $2.44 in morning trading Friday, after the software maker said it turned a profit in the first quarter ended March 31st. The Ottawa, Ontario-based maker of WordPerfect said that it earned $534,000, or a penny per share, compared with a loss of $12.4...

Further solidifying its international foothold in the online auction market, Internet giant announced Thursday that it has launched new Web sites in Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland. According to the San Jose, California-based company, the expansions will enable it to penetrate regional mark...

PlanetRx.com said Thursday that its board of directors approved a plan to liquidate all of the e-tailer's assets, in an attempt to regain some cash for its shareholders. Holders of PlanetRx stock will vote on the plan -- which marks the abandonment of previous intentions to enter the US$14 billi...

Blue Martini Software (Nasdaq: BLUE) dropped 38 U.S. cents to $2.19 in morning trading Friday, after lowering its outlook for the first quarter ending March 31st and announcing plans to cut jobs. "The economic slowdown and the uncertain business climate in the industries we target has resulted in...

Consumers spent US$3.4 billion online in February -- 13.3 percent more than the $3 billion spent online in January -- according to numbers released Thursday by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Forrester Research. "In light of the economic slowdown, we are pleased to see that the Internet...

When the Andersen professional services firm recently surveyed e-commerce customers, nearly half said that e-tailers who also sell from a physical location provide better customer service. More than three-quarters of respondents said they have had both online and offline contact with e-tailers. ...

Here's a twist: shareholders complaining that a dot-com is being over-valued. That's right. Over-valued. In 2001. After the Nasdaq debacle and the shakeout and all the rest. The complaints being lodged at office supplies retailer Staples over its dot-com division have already spawned lawsuits...

A report released Wednesday by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economics professor denounces Orbitz, the controversial Internet travel site set to open this summer, predicting that it will become a "market power ringmaster" that will force U.S. consumers to pay US$183 million more ...

What do comedians like George Carlin know that more serious e-tailers don't seem to grasp? Maybe they understand that business and humor can go hand in hand -- that the way to a consumer's bank account is directly through the funny bone. In fact, if the debut of Laugh.com is any measure of the ...

SafeNet (Nasdaq: SFNT) lost more than half its value in morning trading Thursday, falling US$18.25 to $15.13 after warning of a shortfall in first-quarter results. The company, which makes technology designed at enabling secure communications over the Internet, said it expects net income of 3 to 6...

The number of dot-com job losses fell for the second month in a row, dropping 18 percent in March, according to a report released Tuesday by the job placement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC). In March, 9,533 Internet jobs disappeared, following February job cuts totaling 11,649. C...

The pressing question for e-tailers this year is whether consumer apprehension about the overall economy is going to cause a drop in online spending. So far, Internet spending levels have increased steadily year after year. But with consumer confidence hovering above a low, is 2001 the year th...

Internet shopping network Bigsmart.com has agreed to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that its e-commerce marketplace operates as an illegal pyramid scheme. The settlement calls for the company to pay US$5 million in consumer redress. Under the agreement, Bigsmart.com will als...